On the road in the US with Linda Olsson

Day three - Sunday 15 March

My last day in LA. I had the morning to myself, so went for my daily walk in search of famous people. Last try, no luck. After lunch, my minder, or escort, Barbara picked me up and we drove to Thousand Oaks. Don’t ask me where it is, but it took an hour to get there from Beverly Hills.

On the way we stopped to try and buy a cable for my camera without much luck. Arriving early for my speech we tried a shopping mall in Thousand Oaks. Found a camera shop. They had no cables. But the girl at the counter suggested I should get a memory stick holder instead. I knocked myself on the head several times. How stupid can you get? Of course! So, got one of those.

And herewith a picture taken yesterday at Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, California's oldest and largest bookstore.

Hopefully, more and better to come now that I can access my memory.

The event was at Californian Lutheran University and the sizable venue filled up reasonably well. I was heartened by the sprinkling of male guests in the audience (not all defenceless elderly spouses either). Already, reading the same chapter is beginning to feel a little tiresome. Perhaps I will have to pick something else for the next reading. There were lots of questions – mostly interesting and relevant. The local bookstore sold all the books they had brought to the venue. I was told that was rather unique. ‘Usually we only sell one or two,’ the bookseller said. Yay!
A Swedish dinner followed with some members of the Swedish Women’s Educational Association.
I need to be good tonight. Early to bed. Certainly no wine. I fly to San Francisco early tomorrow morning.
P.S. Wow, opening the package holding the memory stick holder proved an unexpected challenge. The kind of packages that tooth brushes come in are my special kind of hate objects: they require forceful tools to break into, and in my hotel room the only one available was a corkscrew... But a corkscrew can be a wonderful thing…

P.S. 2 The only newspaper review so far is the Boston Globe. An odd one – one of those that makes you wish authors would sometimes get to review reviewers. Still, a review. Can be accessed here http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/03/08/short_takes_boston_globe/